Anyone shed some light on what I need to look for in a DVD player to play AVI movie files, will a player with DVIX or mpeg4 play these, thanks for any help forthcoming.

Just burn the AVIs as a VCD and it'll play fine.

Anyone shed some light on what I need to look for in a DVD player to play AVI movie files, will a player with DVIX or mpeg4 play these, thanks for any help forthcoming.

Unfortunately it's not quite that simple (is anything ever simple). AVI is just a 'wrapper' the contents can be any one of a dozen different 'codecs' of which DivX and MPEG4 are just two.

Put simply, a DVD player with DivX and MPEG4 will play a lot of stuff you download if you just burn it on a DVD disk. Anything else you'll have to convert to a format that your player understands. Cdnvic's suggestion of burning a VCD is simple (although you'll lose some quality and only get 80 minutes on a disk) programs like Nero will convert the file automatically for you (takes TIME).

Download GSpot http://gspot.headbands.com/ that will tell you what codec a particular file is using so you'll get an idea if it'll play or not.

Have a look at http://www.dvdhelp.com/ for some hints on how to convert video formats to something you can watch.

Alternatively couple your PC to the telly and watch that way, there are other threads dealing with doing this, try a search

It seems like most of the .AVI content I get these days is XviD. Most of the new, brand name, 3,000 baht DVD players here support XviD and DivX. I'd look for XviD and DivX support in the specs.

Anyone shed some light on what I need to look for in a DVD player to play AVI movie files, will a player with DVIX or mpeg4 play these, thanks for any help forthcoming.

Thanks for all the help I think I'll hit big C tomorrow looking for Dvix players armed with a disc

Are there really DVD players that can play divx files out in the market already?

I once had a player that would play any disk in "folder" format, and if there were any .mpg files, it would play them if mpegs are standard compliant. The only problem was with time and search functions.

These days I gave up on DVDs completely and play all videos straight from the notebook. COnverting divx files to DVD compliant codecs is too time consuming. I suspect that's what most pirated DVDs here are coming from - converted divx, downloaded from torrents or usenet.

Are there really DVD players that can play divx files out in the market already?

Yes, for quite some time now. A lot of the cheaper brands are actually not bad at all. I bought myself a Pioneer that plays about 90-95% of my XviD and DivX files without a problem. It does depend on the file though - for example, many players have a bit of a problem with the DivX 3 ; ) low motion codec. Mine plays some of these, but not others. Anyways, as lomatopo says, these days XviD is more common than DivX... and there is software that can convert the ones that dont work ok for you. I strongly recommend Virtual Dub for this.

I once had a player that would play any disk in "folder" format, and if there were any .mpg files, it would play them if mpegs are standard compliant. The only problem was with time and search functions.

These days I gave up on DVDs completely and play all videos straight from the notebook. COnverting divx files to DVD compliant codecs is too time consuming. I suspect that's what most pirated DVDs here are coming from - converted divx, downloaded from torrents or usenet.

If one has the possibility to hook up the computer to the TV easily, that is an excellent solution. That way you will save a lot on not having to burn everything you want to watch to disc.

But a player for around 3000 will play most rip formats. My advice is to burn short samples of different file types to a cd and ask to test it in the store. This is what I did when I bought my player. Another alternative is to bring the full files, which will require more discs, but means you wont have to learn have to burn short samples.

I actually use a notebook for hook up. They all come with TV/VGA out nowadays. The PC is too cumbersome and usually to far from the TV set, and those cables aren't cheap. The advantage is that you can buy a video card with HDMI output for LCDs and plasmas and high definition downloads. DivX/Xvid movies are usually only half or even third of the decent LCD TV resolution and that shows if you sit very close. Also notebooks don't normally have Dolby Surround sound output.

And I burn all the movies on CD/DVD roms just not to clog the hard drive space.

I might change my mind, but for now the DVD player is simply gathering dust.